What Is And Never Should Be
by Dede42
Summary: When Dean disappears on a hunt for a Djinn, which is responsible for a series of disappearances in the area, Sam and Liz have to go search for him, and hopefully not fall victim to the Djinn. Will they find and save their brother before it's too late? Or will they become victims, too?


Supernatural: What Is And Never Should Be

A/N: Hello, I'm back! So, this is another one-shot since we're getting close to the season finale, which actually caught me by surprise this time around.

Read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from _Supernatural_ or _Criminal Minds_ ; I just own the characters that I happen to create.

* * *

 **IF ONLY…**

" _Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil_ _."_

 _Psalms 40:14_

Joliet, Illinois…

It was a rainy night, and Dean was driving the Impala, which had new plates, down the road when his phone rang.

"Yeah?"

* * *

Sam and Liz were hiding in a hotel room, and he was looking out the window while Liz hovered nearby.

"There's a cop car outside," Sam said quietly into his phone, eying the black/white car with flashing red/blue lights in question.

 _`"You think it's for us?"`_ Dean asked, concerned since they didn't know when Henriksen was gonna pick up their trail again…even with all the false trails that Penelope Garcia was setting out.

"I don't know," Sam admitted.

* * *

Dean frowned, hoping that they hadn't been pegged…again.

"I don't see how," he pointed out. "I mean we ditched the plates, changed our phone numbers, and even tossed out our old alias and the _other_ credit cards."

Both Sam and Liz let out a breath when they saw the cop car drive away.

"They're leaving," Sam reported, relieved while Liz collapsed on the nearest bed. "False alarm."

 _`"You see,"`_ Dean said, equally relieved. _`"Nothing to worry about."`_

Sam rolled his eyes as he walked away from the window, switching his phone to speaker for Liz's benefit. "Yeah, being fugitives - frikkin' dance party. You know, Hotch isn't even _sure_ that he can get the rest of the FBI off our backs; apparently he's runnin' into _a lot_ of red tape and such."

* * *

Dean didn't like the sound of that, but tried to look on the positive side of everything. "Hey man, chicks _dig_ the danger vibe."

* * *

"Dean, behave," Liz ordered as she and Sam stood in front a bunch of open books and loose papers; they were all about a specific supernatural creature called "Djinn", and on top of them was their dad's journal, open on the same subject.

"So, you got anything yet?" Sam asked forestalling a possible verbal fight between his siblings, turning their attention to the case they'd picked up.

 _`"Are you kidding me?"`_ Dean asked, annoyed. _`"How could I? You got me shifting through like 50 square miles of real state here."`_

"Well, that's where all the victims disappeared," Liz pointed out.

Dean sighed since it was true. _`"Yeah well, I get at least squat. What about you two?"`_

"Just one thing," Sam said, sitting down and set his phone down on the table, along with Liz. "I'm pretty sure of it now." And he pulled one book closer. "We're hunting a Djinn."

* * *

Dean raised his eyebrows. "A _frikkin'_ genie?"

 _`"Yeah,"`_

 _`"Although I doubt that it's the Robin William's genie that we're talking about here,"`_ Liz added.

"What? You think these suckers can really grant wishes?" Dean asked.

* * *

"We don't know," Sam admitted while Liz shrugged. "I guess they're powerful enough. But not exactly like Barbara Eden and the harem pants, or, like Liz said, like the genie that Robin Williams provided the voice for in the _Aladdin_ movies. I mean…Djinn have been feeding off people for centuries. They're all over the Koran."

* * *

"My God. Barbara Eden was hot, wasn't she?" Dean said wistfully, not even listening. " _Way_ hotter than that _Bewitched_ chick."

* * *

Both Sam and Liz glared at the phone in an exasperated manner. "Are you even _listening_ to us?"

* * *

Realizing that he'd zoned out, Dean cleared his throat, embarrassed. "Yeah. So uh, what do the Djinns lair at?"

* * *

"Ruins usually," said Liz, looking through a few papers. "Uh. Bigger the better, more places to hide."

* * *

"Yeah, I think I saw a place couple miles back," Dean said, recalling a large building. "I'm gonna go check it out."

* * *

"No, no, no, no," Sam protested, grabbing his phone as both he and Liz stood up. "Come pick us up first."

"Yeah, it won't take long," Liz added.

* * *

"No. I'm sure it's nothing," Dean said confidently, ignoring the protests of his siblings. "I just wanna take a look around." And he hung up the phone.

* * *

Sam lowered his hand with the phone in it and sighed.

"The jerk," Liz grumbled, sitting down. "It's his own fault if he gets killed."

"Yeah, I know."

* * *

A while later, the Impala pulled up and stopped next to a bunch of empty factory buildings.

* * *

Dean opened the door, flashlight in hand and walked in; he looked around the place and walked along a wall with dimmed windows. Unknown to him, there was a shape on the other side just behind him so he couldn't see it; however, Dean's spider-sense was tingling and he knew he was being followed.

He stopped just where the wall ended and through the last window the shape had stopped too, watching him. Calmly, Dean pulled out a silver knife with blood on it, ready to strike; he breathed and then jumped out into hallway.

But it was empty. Confused, Dean looked back and forth a few times, and then started walking back the same direction he came from but this time in the hall; on his right among all the old things and such the figure, the Djinn, was hiding, but he didn't see it and walked on.

Suddenly it attacked him, pinning him against the window wall; he dropped the flashlight and the Djinn grabbed his other hand that contained the knife up against the wall, slammed it a few times, and he was forced to drop the knife. The Djinn then opened it's left hand and it began to glow in blue, his eyes doing the same; it put it's glowing hand on Dean's forehead and his eyes rolled up as they became washed-out blue, and he blacked out.

* * *

"It's been _two hours_ , Sam," Liz said, pacing. "He should've _called_ by now."

"I know," Sam agreed, also worried; they both knew that there were times when Dean _had_ to be independent and do things on his own, but even their brother knew to call them up for help if he really needed it, and two hours of nothing, they both were on the verge of panicking.

"I'm goin' to call him," Sam said, much to Liz's relief; he picked up his phone, clicked on their brother's number, and called it. "Come on, come on…damn it!" he lowered it and looked at Liz, whose emotions were on the verge of utter panic. "Voicemail."

Liz quietly cursed and grabbed her own phone, plus her jacket. "I'm goin' to call Garcia to lock on Dean's phone so we can follow it using the GPS."

Sam agreed, grabbing his own jacket, and they headed out to find a car to _borrow_.

* * *

A few hours later, they were on the road in a battered van that Sam had hot-wired and were heading out of town; when Liz called Penelope, it'd taken her a few tries to calm the older woman down when she'd panicked upon hearing that Dean was missing, and had her turn on the GPS chips that their new phones carried.

* * *

Now they were handed to an abandoned factory and their hearts became constricted when they saw the Impala parked near it, with _no_ sign of Dean.

"I don't like the looks of this," Liz said quietly as they got out of the van, armed with a pair of flashlights and silver knives dipped in lamb's blood, which were the only things that could kill the Djinn…hopefully.

"Same here," Sam agreed and reached out with his senses; detecting some faint emotions inside, he nodded to Liz. "Dean's inside there." And they hurried inside the nearest building.

* * *

After searching the main hallway, Sam and Liz entered a large room, and they both shuddered when they saw two bodies hanging from the ceiling, which had a drained blood bag hanging next to one of them; looking past them, they next saw a dark-haired woman, hanging like the bodies. They approached her and they saw another blood bag next to her, and it was filled with blood; her eyes were open and she looked pretty dead.

"I _think_ I'm gonna be sick," Liz muttered and Sam couldn't blame her as he examined both the bag and her writs, which were tied, just like the others; when she began to make sounds, they both jumped. She was _still_ alive!

Before they could do _anything_ for the woman, Sam sensed something with inhuman emotions heading their way, and, pulling on Liz's arm, they hurried to find a place to hide; seconds later, the Djinn came out from behind a wall and walked up behind the woman.

The woman was sobbing, and it seemed like she was coming out a trance. "Where's my dad? I wonder how…" she seemed to wake up and spotted the Djinn, which had now moved in front of her. "Don't," she moaned, terrified, and she moved her feet away from the Djinn; behind it, Sam and Liz had hidden themselves behind a low wall, and they could see that the woman was crying. "Where's my dad?!"

Reaching out, the Djinn gently touched her face. "Sleep," he commanded as some blue flares moved over her cheek as he stroked her face, his eyes glowing a bright blue. "Sleep."

Unable to resist the sleep spell, her head fell forward, eyes still open and her feet relaxed, falling forward again, once again going into some kind of dream state; the Djinn rested his face against her arms, touching her right arm and breathing heavily, eyes closed. He then went for the blood bag, pulled out one straw and put it to his mouth, drinking her blood.

Seeing this, Liz tried and failed to keep from gagging in disgust. Hearing this, the Djinn turned around right away, eyes flashing blue, and he began to move towards their hiding place; when he got there, they were gone.

* * *

After searching the area for a few minutes, the Djinn walked up some creeky steps, unaware that Sam and Liz were standing below them, looking up, following his steps. When a door closed in the distance, Liz let out a breath that she _hadn't_ been aware of holding.

"Man, _that_ was close."

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

Pulling themselves together, they went back to the woman, and it was then that they saw Dean. "Dean!"

* * *

 _Dean was looking_ _at Carmen, Sam, Liz, George, and Mary with tears in his eyes; they wanted him to stay with them and have a normal life…it was_ so _tempting. Swallowing, he backed away, looking at the floor; he then raised his head, looking at Sam and Liz._

" _I'm sorry," Dean whispered, and then he thrust the knife into himself, blood immediately came out of his mouth._

* * *

"Dean!"

"Dean!"

Both Sam and Liz ran toward their brother, who was strung up like a piece of meat; Dean was hanging from the ceiling like the woman, his eyes were open, and a blood bag hung next to him.

"Oh God. Come on." Sam began shaking him, hoping to snap their brother out of it. "Hey. Wake up. Wake up, damn it!"

For a moment, both he and Liz thought they were too late…when Dean grunted a little, and his eyes began to focus on his siblings.

"Hey. Hey," Liz said, relieved while Sam could sense their brother's exhaustion, confused, and also relief.

"Ahh…Antie Em," Dean mumbled, dazed. "There's no place like home."

"Thank God," Sam gasped while Liz laughed, relieved. "Thought we lost you for a second." And he pulled out a strange IV needle that was in Dean's throat.

Dean winced and groaned. "You almost did."

"Oh god." Liz breathed heavily. "Let's get you down."

Agreeing, Sam reached up and started to cut through the ropes as Dean winced over the pain and grunted a little; they were so busy, that Sam and Liz didn't realize that a pair of bright blue eyes was approaching them from the shadows, and then the Djinn came out.

Dean, however, spotted the Djinn. "Sam! Liz!"

Liz ducked when the Djinn tried to grab her; Sam turned around, going after the Djinn with the silver knife. They tussled for several seconds since they were even in the strength area. He was keenly aware that Dean was struggling with the ropes, and as he blocked the Djinn's attempt to hit him, he saw Liz getting in position, her knife at the ready.

Using, his telekinesis, Sam sent the blasted Djinn flying into the nearest wall, dazing it; taking advantage of the moment, Liz pinned it to the wall and raised her knife; unfortunately, the Djinn recovered faster then expected, and it threw itself at her.

Liz yelped as it got a hand around her neck and her wrist, grunting as it forced her to drop the knife, only to have Sam tackle him from behind; suddenly free, Liz ran for the stairs, getting up a few steps when the Djinn, who managed to throw Sam off of him, grabbed her leg, making her fall on the stairs… _hard_.

Pulling the dazed girl toward him, the Djinn got her by the throat and moved his hand to her forehead; recovering, Liz got a hold of his wrist, and was trying to stop him. Unfazed, the Djinn opened his fist and a blue light began to appear around his hand, and she began to panic, recalling her encounter with the Menae. "No!"

When it's hand was almost at her forehead, Sam grabbed it from behind and threw it to the floor; the Djinn got up to go another round, when Dean thrust the knife into it's back. Gasping, the blue light went out of its' eyes, which then closed, and its' head rolled down; Dean pulled out the knife, and it fell to the ground - dead.

Liz was breathing heavily from being strangled as Sam helped her up, and Dean wasn't looking too good, but that didn't stop him from going up to the woman, who had a tear rolling down one cheek; he put his hand to her neck, feeling for a pulse.

"She's still alive," he gasped when he found one and handed the knife over to Sam. "Sam…" he then pulled out the needle in her neck while Liz held onto her, and Sam cut her rope. Liz then let go so that Dean could hold her.

"I gotcha. I gotcha," Dean whispered, cradling the woman, who was starting to resurface again, and his siblings watched, respectfully keeping their distance. "We're gonna get you out of here, ok? I gotcha." She made small weezing sounds. "I got you."

* * *

A few hours later, after dropping the woman off at the emergency room, Dean was on the bed, flipping through a magazine; after a moment, he came to an ad for the beer "El Sol" and he saw a dark-haired woman that looked just like Carmen from his dream state, and he chuckled at the irony.

Sam was on the phone with the hospital. "Ok, uh, thank you so much for the update. Ok, bye." He then hung up. "That was the hospital. Girl's been stabilized." And he sat down next to Liz on the second bed, across from Dean. "Good chance she's gonna pull through."

Dean nodded, still looking in the magazine. "That's good."

"Yeah," Liz agreed. "How 'bout you? You alright?"

Dean nodded, clearing his throat. "Yeah, I'm alright." He then paused for a moment and closed the magazine. "Should have seen it, Sam, Liz. Our lives. You were married to a librarian, Liz, and you were _such_ a wozzie, Sam."

"A librarian?" Liz repeated. "You're _joking_."

Sam smiled. "So we didn't get along then, huh?"

"No," Dean agreed."

Sam chuckled while Liz rolled her eyes at the thought of being married to a librarian. "Yeah…I thought it was supposed to, to be this perfect fantasy."

Dean snorted. "It wasn't." and he put down the magazine. "Was just a wish…I wished for mom to be alive. That mom never died, we never went hunting and we just never uh… you know."

"Yeah…" Sam agreed quietly and even Liz nodded since they would've probably wished the same thing. "Well, I'm glad we do. And I'm glad you dug yourself out, Dean. Most people wouldn't have the strength, would have just stayed."

"I'm glad you pulled yourself out, too," Liz added, which was true.

Dean chuckled grimly. "Yeah…Lucky me. I gotta tell you though, man." He got off the bed. "You know, you had Jess. You had a husband, Liz. Mom was gonna have grandkids…"

Sam nodded he knew what their brother was getting at. "Yeah, but…Dean…it wasn't real."

"Yeah, it was just a wistful dream and nothin' else," Liz agreed.

"I know. But I wanted to stay," Dean admitted, surprising his siblings. "I wanted to stay _so_ bad. I mean, ever since dad…all I can think about is how much this job's cost us. We've lost so much." He shook his head. "We've…sacrificed _so_ much."

"But people are alive because of you," Sam reminded him. "It's worth it, Dean. It is…it's not fair, and…you know, it hurts like hell, but…it's worth it."

"Oh really?" Dean asked, suddenly angry. "And what of the lives we ruin? The lives of the people that we tell the truth to? When we reveal the truth to them, we _ruin_ their lives."

Both Sam and Liz stared at their brother, unsure of what to say to this outburst; for the past few months, ever since the incident in Rivergrove, they both knew that Dean had issues, _and_ that he was tired of being a hunter, longing for a normal life that they could never have…could they?

"Dean, we _save_ more lives then we ruin," Liz pointed out, not liking where this was heading and stood up when Dean began pacing. "True, tellin' the truth about the supernatural world to others is probably not the best idea, but there's plenty of people out there who are still alive because of what we _do_ , and I agree that it isn't fair, but no amount of wishing will ever change what has happen."

Dean turned on her angrily. "So, you're just gonna _accept_ this stupid life, Liz?" he snapped, surprising her and Sam winced from the sudden level of negative emotions. "And here I thought you wanted to be _normal_."

Liz stared at her twin for a moment, and then she exploded. " _Of course_ I want to be normal! But it's not gonna _happen_ at the rate things are going…not with Azazel still out there with some _bloody_ plan that could bring about the end of the world. And don't forget, I was pretty much _raped_ by that yellow-eyed bastard for a _month_ , and I'm gonna have those memories for the rest of my life."

Sam then stepped between his siblings, surprised that he was being the peacekeeper this time. "Enough you two. Liz go out and get some air, Dean, there's milk in the fridge and a Subway sandwich, you eat it right now," he ordered, going all Jedi on them; luckily, they didn't protest and did as he asked.

Sam watched Liz leave and Dean go to the fridge to get the food and sighed. It was probably going to be a long while before his siblings were going to talk to each other again. _'Now I know what Liz goes through whenever Dean and I argue.'_

* * *

A/N: Yeah, it was time for Sam to be the peacekeeper for a change, and turning this episode into a one-shot was easy, but I did it. R&R everyone!


End file.
